Door-operating mechanism.



J. F. STRBIB.

DOOR OPERATING MEOHANISM.

4 APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3, 1910. 998,929, Patfantedl July 25, 5 SHEETS-SHEET l.

J. F. STRBIB.

DOOR OPERATING MEGHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3, 1910.

Patented July 25, 1911.

-SEBET 2.

5 SHEETS- DOOR OPERATIN STREIB..A

G MEGHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED PEB. 3, 1910.

Patented July y25,

5 SHEETS- SHEET s.

witnesses dttoznu J. F. STREIB. DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM. l APPLICATION FILED PEB. 3, 1910. 993,929, Patented July 25, 1911.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

J. F. STREIB.

DOORI OPERATING 'MEGHANISM AYPLIUATION Hum Ems. a, 1910.

Patented July 25, 1911.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

g UNITED .sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

JOHN F'. STREIB, OF AVALON, PENNSYLVANIA, SSIGNOR vT0 PRESSED STEEL CAB. COMPANY, 0F PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPQRATION 0F NEW JERSEY.v

DOOR-OPERATING MECHANSM.

Speccation of Letters Patent.

Patented July 2.5, 1911.

Application filed February 3, 191). Serial No.- 541,699.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN F. STREr, a Citizen of the United States, residing at Avalon, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements Door- Operating Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

An object of the present invention is to provide imppovements in that class of .car door gear for use in railway cars having drop discharge doors in which means is proF vided for raising said doors which means, after raising the doors, lsupports them directly to relieve the connection-:between the door-raising means and the door from strain.

Specifically stated, my invention relates to that class of door operating and supporting mechanism which is shown and described in United States Letters Patent No. 791,348, issued May 30th, 1905, to C. ApLindstrom and myself, and United States Letters Patent No. 833,402, issued October 16, 1906, to C. A. Lindstrom. In the mechanism of both of these patents, chain means is employed for raising the doors and a creeping-shaft is employed for first winding said chain means and then supporting the doors in raised posi tion directly on the shaft, and not through the medium of the chain means, to relieve the chain means from load strain.

The herein described invention relates to any railway dump car door operating1 mechanism which involves a bodily movable shaft for supporting drop doors in closed position and has for a specific object to provide a means vwhereby such a shaft maybe readily applied to a dump car either at .the time the car is built or subsequently thereto.

A further object of the presentinvention is 'to'- provide a mechanism comprising detailed improvements'in the type of mechanism above described, so that a more direct pull will be exerted on the lifting chain dur-Y ing the closing movement of the .door and so that the chain is caused to Wind more evenly upon the translation of the bodily movable whereby such a mechanism may be applied' to a dump car without the necessity of eutting the diaphragms or cross-bearers of the car to form the shaft bearings therein. An important advantage of the structure of the' present invention is, however, that it enables the application of a door operating gear, such as is illustrated in the two aforesaid patents, to a car formerly equipped with some other type of doormechanism which has proven unserviceable.

Vith the mechanism herein shown and described, and forming the subject-mattei' of the present invention, the complete mechanism is separate and distinct from the structure of the car proper, and such invention is fully described in the followingv specification and shown in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to* like parts, and in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of about onehalf of a railway car, of the gondola type equipped with a structure of the invention and in which the door-operating shaft runs from the end sill of the car to the middle portion of the car; Fig. 2 is a transverse section showing slightly over one-half of a car transversely on the line 2 2, Fig. l; Fig. 3 is a detail side view'of the central shaft supporting bracket, bearing or hanger; Fig. 4 is a detail bottom plan view of the same; Fig. 5 is a view similar to F i'g. 2 but on the line 5 5, Fig. 1; Fig. 6 is a longitudinal detail sectional view on' the line 6-6, Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a detail bottom plan-view of one of the doorshoes; Fig. 8 is a detail side elevation of the same; Fig, 9 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing a shaft extending only from the car bolster to the middle portion ofthe car; Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing the structure of Fig. 9, and Fig. 11 is a slightly enlarged detail side ele` vation illustrating the outer end ofthe shaft and its supporting bracket shown in Fig. 9. Referringnow in detail to the drawings,

1 represents the center sills of a car, 2 the car bolster, 3 the deep intermediate crossbearers, 4 the shallow intermediate crossbearers, 5 the car side wall or sheeting, 6 the car stakes, 7 the dump doors pivoted between the several cross-bearers 2, 3 and 4, and 8 the door-operating shaft.

9 is the combined chain-winding sheave and shoe supporting collar, and 10 is a doorraising chain which winds about the Icollar or sheave 9.

11 is the shaft-operating lever suitably mounted on and adapted to travel with thfi shaft 8, and 12 is any suitable form of pa and ratchet mechanism mounted on shaft 8 and coperating with the lever 1l to turn shaft 8. v

All of the foregoing parts are present in previous constructions. l

For the purpose of applying the foregoing parts of the door-operating mechanism to the car without modifying in any way the shape of such mechanism, shoes 13 and slotted shaft supporting brackets, bearings or hangers, hereinafter described, are pro# vided. Shoes 13, of substantially the same depth as cross-bearers 2, 3 and 4 at their outer ends, are riveted or otherwise secured tothe under surface of door's 7 at the forward or free edges of said doors. Shoes 13 are provided with lateral horizontal upper faces or extensions 13a (Figs. 6 and 7) for the purpose of securing them to doors 7. Shoes 13 are furthermore provided with sub stantially perpendicular rear faces 13b, substantially perpendicular sides 13C, project- Y ing serrated noses 13d (Figs. 5, 7 and 8),

an intermediate perpendicular transverse strengthening rib 13e just back of nose13d.

The surfacesand flanges, thus described, make shoes 13 hollow boxlike structures each with oneside open, strong in proportion to their weight and well adapted to the work for which they are-intended. Shoes 13 also form pointsof attachment for the vchains 10 to door 7, each of shoes 13 being provided at the rear with a depending flange 13t beneath its rear face 13b and perforated to receive an eye-bolt 14 to which vthe door end of chain 10 is secured. As guides to Achains 10, each of shoes 13 is also provided with a. channel or guide-ways 131g formed in the under surface of shoe 13. Channel or guide-ways 13g are wedge-shaped, the narrowed portions of said channel or guideways 13g, being at the points of attachment of chains 10 to shoes 1 3.4 The function'of these guide or channel-ways 13g is to maintain the chains 10 .in line so that when the doors are dropped'4 the chains will not slip olf the sides of the shoes 13 and thus interfere with the lifting of the door to an extent suflicient to allow the door shaft S to ceases ride under the shoe 13. Shoe 13 is also rounded on its under side beneath nose 13d to form a bearing for chain 10 at the point where it bends toward the shaft 3. Shoes 13 and the serrated rollers on combined col lars and sheaves 9 form bearings for the shaft 8 under the door 7.

Door 7 is reinforced and braced longitudinally by angles 7a arranged in two pairs, respectively, angles 7a of each pair being spaced apart a distance equal to the width of a shoe 13 to receive a shoe 13 therebetween at or near the 'forward edge of the door 7', each of the shoes 13 occupying such a position that its nose 13d projects outwardly beyond the free edge of the door 7. It will thus be seen that each of the doors 7 is reinforced longitudinally in direct lines with the shoes on the under side of the door, two of the several angles on each door constituting the side edges of the door which are adapted to bear against the cover plate 15 of the cross-bearers 2, 3 and 4. A

In additionto angles 7a, the free edge of thedoor is provided with an angle 7 b which stiffens the door along its free edge and counteracts the warping tendency. Angle 7b also constitutes the free edge of the door and bears against theedge strip 16 of the car floor.

In order to support the bodily movable shaft in slotted bearings in such a manner that it will be unnecessary to alter or change the construction of the car proper, and so that the mechanism herein described may be applied to any existing car, slotted shaftsupporting brackets, hangers or bearings 17 are provided, each of which has a bearing recess or slot- 17a to receive and guide the shaft in its translation bodily. There are threev distinct forms of these brackets, hangers or bearings 17 showinin Figs. 1 to 8, inclusive, these three forms differing in details to adapt them to the shape of the particular cross-bearer on which they are mounted, and one of said brackets, hangers or bearings 17 differing further from vthe others in that it is provided with two shaft guide recesses 17b separated by a central wall or partition to adapt it to act as a bearing for the adjacent ends of the two operating shafts 8 on one side of the car. This particular form'of bracket, hanger or bear ing 17 is shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

Brackets 17, which are secured to the cross-bearers 2 and 3, are each provided with separated and upwardly projecting securing lugs 17c through means of which they are secured to stakes Bracket-s, hangers or bearings 17, secured to cross-bearers 2 and 3, are also each provided with an inclined upper surface and laterally projecting lugs or flanges 17d by means of which they are seisi ' nose 13d of the shoe 13 is approximately in cured to the under surfaces ofthe `crosss bearers 2 and 3. Brackets, hangers or bearings 17,-which are secured to the. crossbearers .4, are provided simply with upwardly projecting anges 1Te through means of which they aresecured to the webs of the cross-bearers 4. The brackets. bear` ings or hangers 17, which are secured to the` cross-bearers 2 and 4,' ,are provided with guide slots which extend through said proximately one-half the lengt-h of the car.4 in the structure shown in Figs. 9 to 11, in-

clusive, the door-operating shaft; extends only from the car bolster or cross-bearer 2 to approximately the center ot the car. There is one further difference between the structure shown in Figs. 1 to 8, inclusive, to the structure shown in Figs. 9 to 11, inclusive, which is the shape of the bracket, hanger or bearing 17 mounted on the crossbearer 2 in Figs. 9 to 11, inclusive, this bracket being riveted to the web of the crossbearer or bolster?. projecting outwardly and then downwardly to support the outer end of the shaft-8.

The operation of the mechanism is the same whether it is made in accordance with Figs. 1 to 8, inclusive. or whether it is made in accordance with Figs. 9 to 11, inclusive. In each ca'se, assuming the doors to be open, the operating lever 11 is moved away from the car and back a number of times, rotating the shaft 8 in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 5, winding the ch'ain over the shaft and drawing the door up to a position where the the plane of the upper surface of the combined chain winding sheave and shaft supporting collar, whereupon continued rotation will. through the further winding of the. chain on shaft S. force shaft S to creep beneath shoe 13. thereby creating a nal wedging action ofthe door against the edge E stripi 16, so that the same is closed very tightly.

The operation of the mechanism has already been described in the patents previously herein referred to and does not constitute the present invention which consists in the peculiar shaping of the several parts,

ot' the mechanism which makes itpossible to apply the general type of mechanism to any car having a drop door, for it is obvious that the shapes of the shoes 13 vandjthe brackets. hangersor bearings 1T may be so modified as to suit ,the particular shapes 'of the drop doors of a car, or the shafts. or depths of the cross-bearers. respectively. to which theyT are applied. such shoes and brackets. hangers or bearings being the only parts in thev mechanism -which require special shaping or construction, the remaining parts being standard. Hence it will be seen that expensive application of this general type of door gear to a car, whether a new or 'an old car. may be maintained at the minimum. lt is obvious that the shoes and the the winding sheaves or collars may be ofl any suitable shape to accomplish other advantageous results. provided they are of suflicient dimension to compensate for the 'depth of the cross-bearers in a car, so that the creeping shaft in the mechanism may be mounted below suoli cross-bearers.

While in Fig. 1 the'door-raising shaft T is shown as extending through the end sill of the car, in which case, of course, it will be necessary to cut the end sill of the car to form a slotted bearing therein. it is obvious that this would not be necessary in all cases, as frequently end sills are employed on cars which are not of greater depth than the crossbearers of the car.

Itwill be appreciated that the mechanism hereinshown and described is separate and distinct from the car construction and, even if applied to a car when new, it involves less expense than if bearings were formed in the several cross-bearers, as has been done heretofore.

Having thus described my invention. the following is what I claim as new therein and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a dump car, the combination with a drop door, a shaft and a chain for raising said door, of a casting projecting from the free edge of said door and having a flaring chain-guiding channel formed in its under v l and a bodily movable shaft for first raising said door and then moving into position to directly support the door. of a shaft bracket having a slot formed therein for the sha-ft and upwardly projecting securing iianges secured to the underfram'e.

3. In a dump car, the combination with the underirame, a drop door hinged therein, and a bodily movable shaft for first raising said door and then moving into a position to directly support the door, of a slotted shaftsupporting bracket Ymounted beneath the underframe and provided with an yoitset. up-

la A @98,929

wardly projecting securing flange secured jecting securing flanges embracing and se- 10 to the underframe. cured to a portion of the underframe.

4. In a dump car, the combination with In testimony whereof atix my signature the underframe, a drop door hinged therein, in presence of two witnesses. v

and a bodily movable shaft for rst raising said door and then moving into a position to JOHN F' STREIB' directly support the door, of a. slotted shaft- Witnesses:

supporting bracket mounted beneath the un- G. C. LAMBE,

derfrzune und provided with upwardly pro- G. M. AGNEW. 

